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Who's Who - Charles Lanrezac

Charles Lanrezac (1852-1925), whilst
regarded as the French Army's most respected pre-war strategist, proved less
able as a commander in the field and was removed from command in the first
month of the war, in August 1914.

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Lanrezac led the French
Fifth Army at the onset of hostilities and was assigned to the left wing of
the planned French invasion of Germany as dictated by
Plan XVII.
However, having encountered the massing of German troops into Belgium - a
German strategy virtually discounted by Plan XVII - Lanrezac quickly
reversed his notions of a quick, aggressive, victory.

Lanrezac's change of heart, and his belief that the German forces
represented a real threat to France, were viewed as overly alarmist.
Even so, his Fifth Army was redeployed away from the
Ardennes invasion to
face any potential German attack from the north.

Ordered
to attack at the
Battle of Charleroi an army twice the size of his own, and
in the absence of reinforcements from the late-arriving British
Expeditionary Force (BEF), Lanrezac executed a strategic retreat.

Whilst arguably justified it destroyed his reputation as an attacking
General, and Lanrezac was used as a scapegoat by both the British and French
commanders-in-chief for the calamitous collapse of the Allied forces in
Belgium.

Consequently, Lanrezac was replaced immediately prior to the French
counter-attack at the Marne battle by General
Franchet d'Esperey.

He refused the offer of a
new command in 1917 and after the war published a sharp attack upon Joffre's
handling of the August 1914 campaign. His reputation was rehabilitated
by his decoration in 1924 by
Petain.